Three babies born in early-morning hours of Jan. 1 at county hospitals

By just three minutes, Donovan Stanley Jones became the first baby to be born in Montgomery County in 2008.

After nearly eight hours of labor, the 8-pound, 8-ounce baby boy was born to military couple Jiani and Stanley Jones at 1:50 a.m. Jan. 1 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

‘‘It was neat. I never thought we’d have a New Year’s baby,” said Jiani Jones, 25.

Coming in second place was Jack Vollmerhausen. Born just three minute later at 1:53 a.m., he was the first baby born in 2008 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring.

And at 3:05 a.m., Ericson Laizure was Shady Grove Adventist Hospital’s first baby born in the new year.

Ericson is Hanako and Eric Laizure’s first child and weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces. He was born in the hospital’s new Mother⁄Baby Unit, which opened in November.

All three new year babies share more than a birthday. All were born before their due dates.

Donovan was nine days early, surprising his parents and forcing them to shift their New Year’s Eve plans from drinking sparkling cider at home to drinking it at the hospital.

Jiani Jones, who is stationed at the Pentagon, moved to Fort Meade just after Thanksgiving from New Jersey, where she was stationed with her family.

Although he was early, Donovan had good timing as his father, who is still stationed in New Jersey, drove down to Fort Meade to surprise his family for New Year’s Eve.

‘‘And that night we were driving to the hospital,” Jiani Jones said. ‘‘I got lucky with that; I almost had this baby by myself.”

Jack was born to Travis and Rosana Vollmerhausen three weeks earlier than his due date.

Vollmerhausen, 28, went into labor five weeks early, but doctors put her on medication to stop the contractions and allow the pregnancy to reach 36 weeks.

‘‘It was good because it let us take extra time to get all our ducks in a row,” said Travis Vollmerhausen, who was born at Holy Cross 31 years ago. Travis and Rosana are from Silver Spring and went to high school together at Springbrook. They have been married for four years.

Although they were not expecting a New Year’s baby, they thought it was ‘‘pretty cool.”

‘‘We’re thrilled,” Rosana Vollmerhausen said. ‘‘He could’ve come any day, but it was special that it was on New Year’s.”

The unexpected delivery squashed the couple’s New Year’s Eve plans for a low-key, homemade dinner.

‘‘That day, we were just thinking, ‘What did we do last year and the year before?’ because it gets hard to remember, but this one definitely won’t be forgotten,” Rosana Vollmerhausen said.

Although the birth was a lot harder than she expected, Hanako Laizure, 36, said she was happy to welcome her new son. Laizure moved to the United States from Japan in 2004 for work after completing graduate school. She is looking forward to her mother flying in from Japan this week to help take care of the baby for a while.

Ericson was also an early baby, born eight days before he was due.

‘‘We’re just going to take it one day at a time at home and relax,” Eric Laizure said. ‘‘I love him.”